The Central District Court of California has dismissed SpaceX's lawsuit against the Air Force, ordering the case to be vacated in a new judgment issued last week.
The judge's detailed ruling, filed Sept. 24, remains sealed, but an Oct. 2 filing indicates the court decided in favor of the Air Force, as defendant, on all the company's claims.
SpaceX -- one of two companies currently certified to fly National Security Space Launch missions -- filed the lawsuit in May 2019 with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. It argued that the Air Force violated the law when, in August 2018, it overlooked SpaceX's bid for a launch services agreement and instead awarded funding to three of the company's competitors: United Launch Alliance, Northrop Grumman and Blue Origin.
SpaceX's case alleged wrongdoing on four counts: the Air Force's decision to invest in two launch systems "purpose-built" for national security missions violates congressional calls for commercially competitive systems; the service's awards to companies with systems that may not be able to meet lawmakers' deadline for ending reliance on Russian-made propulsion systems; its LSA awards effectively continued subsidies to ULA and two of its providers, despite Congress requiring an end to those payments; and its use of "arbitrary cost, risk and schedule evaluations."
The Federal Claims Court dismissed the suit in September 2019, saying the court did not have jurisdiction to make a decision on the case and transferred it to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, which heard the case in July.
The Air Force in August selected SpaceX and ULA to launch all NSSL missions between fiscal years 2020 and 2024. ULA will launch 60% of those missions and SpaceX 40%.